


Two Different Worlds

by Joanne_c



Category: Uptown Girl - Billy Joel (Song)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-16
Updated: 2014-06-16
Packaged: 2018-02-04 22:26:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1795378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joanne_c/pseuds/Joanne_c
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, two worlds aren't all that far apart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two Different Worlds

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Missy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy/gifts).



The first time I saw Claire, I thought she was a hooker.

Which sounds a little more salacious than it actually was. Back then I’d never have used salacious, either.

But it’s true. The first time I saw her, walking along that street in my part of town, I figured a girl dressed like that couldn’t be anything but a hooker. You just don’t wear a fancy dress and heels and nothing else out at night unless you’re advertizing the goods, if you know what I mean.

Still, I could tell she was out of place, so I went up to her, asked if I could help.

That impression of her being a hooker got shattered as soon as I got a good look at her, saw the dress was more than fancy, it was like the ladies in the magazines my sister’s still crazy about wore. So I asked her if I could help her.

I think she was gonna say no, but she must’ve seen something in me, the desire to help was what she said later, but I still say it was love at first sight, even if we didn’t know it.

She told me her car had broken down and she was looking for a phone, but I told her it was her lucky night, because I happened to be a mechanic. Still am, at heart, give me a car that doesn’t work and I’ll spend all day figuring out the problem. I’d rather do that than anything else – well, almost anything else – even now.

The car had some minor thing wrong, so I did my thing and it roared back to life. Up to then, it was the nicest car I’d ever worked on. She said she’d pay me later, but I told her not to worry, it was on the house.  
She drove away and I never thought I’d see her again. Figured the uptown girl I thought was a hooker was a good story I could tell people.

Next day, though, she came back. She tried to give me money, and I said no. So she brings out this basket, full of food. Says if I’m not going to take her money, she’ll give me a good meal. Not that I was skinny, I’ve always had good muscles. But I figured, why not, I had to eat. She didn’t try to give me fancy stuff. Just good ham and cheese, pastrami, and something else I can’t remember, as well as chocolate cake. You get my heart if you give me anything chocolate, and she didn’t know that at the time.

So after our little picnic in my garage office, I really thought that was gonna be the last time I saw her. Except she left an earring behind, and I could tell it wasn’t just glass. She’d left her address with me, so I took it to her apartment.

She kissed me on the cheek to thank me, and just like in those books, where it’s all contrived, I turned and she kissed my lips. We didn’t pull apart awkwardly, though, we kissed for a long time, it felt really nice and she smelled so good. We didn’t do more than kiss, though. She was a good girl and I wasn’t about to push her away from that. Can’t say I was a gentleman, because if I’d thought there was the smallest chance, I’d have pushed her down on the sofa. But I knew better than that, with a girl like her.

I had no idea how to date a girl like her. If I was one of those guys who had a trust fund and went to Harvard, I’d have known, but that was so not me. I went to mechanic school and ended up in my uncle’s garage. She went to some fancy school and was training to be some kind of big shot in business. Two different goddamn worlds, no matter what Claire tried to tell me.

If she’d ever taken no for an answer, I’d have been in some kind of trouble, because by this time I knew I was in love. She’d go on dates with me, telling me she never played pool or drank beer, but she was okay at that, too. Actually, she kind of beat me at pool, but I later found out about billiards and how that was pool for the uptown set, and that she was good at billiards, which must have translated or something.

I told her she was a hustler and I kissed her for the first time that I knew I was going to kiss her in the dark corner of that bar.

I still didn’t know how to date her, though. This wasn’t dating, it was like I was showing her my world and she was telling me it didn’t matter, but I knew it did. I couldn’t sit at dinner and use a dozen forks, and I told her that when I took her home after the bar. She said it didn’t matter, and I said it didn’t yet, but how could we know it wouldn’t in five years. She kissed me and told me to shut up and then we did the only thing I like better than working on a car.

I won’t say it was easy, no matter what she said, some things did matter, and I made some mistakes. But I got to know some good people, her parents and family to start with, and slowly, I learned my way around her world. 

I’ll never be as comfortable in her world as she is in mine, though, but the thing is, it really doesn’t matter. She was right about that. The only thing that matters is us. I’m comfortable enough to fake it for as long as we need to with the people who wouldn’t think I belonged there, and we have a lot more than the two different worlds.

We’ve got a family, kids of our own now. We’ve got a house, just about halfway between my family and hers, in a good area, if not the rich area she’d always lived in. We’ve got a yard and a dog and neighbors we talk to, and one day my mom drops in with a cake, the next day her mom drops in with some wine, and we all spend time together on the weekends.

I’m still working in my uncle’s garage, but he’s gonna be retiring soon, and it’ll be mine then. I might not be the big shot in the business world she expected to marry, but we’re happy, I make enough money to keep her and the kids – well, she works too - and we’ve made it work.

Sometimes, the distance between two worlds isn’t that big.

I still tell the story about how I thought Claire was a hooker the first time I saw her, too.


End file.
